Join a CASRAI working group

What to include

A good application is short and specific

Working-group applications are read by the CASRAI editorial coordinator and the appointing chair (where one is already in post). The shortlisting rubric is published — domain expertise, institutional and regional diversity, an explicit slot for early-career researchers, and a sense that the applicant has the time to be useful rather than just titled. You do not need to write a long letter. The strongest applications are three or four sentences: what you do, what you have shipped that touches this domain, what you want to work on, and how much time you can realistically give. If you are applying for chair, please add a sentence on how you would convene the group — the cadence you would set, the first three priorities you would surface, and the cross-walks to adjacent standards you would steward.

What happens next

From submission to seat

1. Within five working days

   The CASRAI editorial coordinator acknowledges receipt and confirms which open-call window your application falls under.

2. At the close of the window

   Applications are reviewed in a batch against the published shortlisting rubric. Where a chair is already in post, the chair joins the review.

3. Within four weeks of close

   Decisions are returned. Successful applicants receive an onboarding pack covering the terms of reference, the editorial style guide and the current candidate-term pipeline.

4. Ongoing

   Members are named in release notes and the editorial-meta block of any entry they author or review, alongside their CRediT role. Working-group output is released under CC-BY 4.0.

FAQ

Frequently asked

What happens after I submit?

Submitting the form above creates your application immediately — no separate e-mail step required. The CASRAI editorial coordinator is notified at the [email protected] inbox and acknowledges receipt within five working days. Applications are reviewed in batches at the close of each open-call window — typically every quarter. Decisions are returned within four weeks of the close of the window.

How long does the form take?

A few minutes. Only four things are required: the working group, your name, an e-mail address, and a short paragraph on why that group. Institution and ORCID iD are optional, and the seat and commitment fields are pre-set to the most common answers.

Do I need an ORCID iD?

No — ORCID is optional but recommended. It lets us attribute your working-group contribution to your researcher record in a machine-readable way, alongside any CRediT roles you take on as part of authoring an entry.

Do I need an institutional affiliation?

No. Working-group membership is open to independent practitioners. The qualification test is competence and time, not affiliation. Independent applicants are welcomed alongside university, publisher, repository, infrastructure and funder-based applicants.

Can I apply to more than one working group?

Yes — submit a separate application for each. Most active members serve on one working group at a time to keep the time commitment manageable; chair roles are normally limited to one.

I am applying as a sponsor, not a participant.

Use the same form and select "Observer" in the seat field, or email [email protected] directly with the subject "Sponsorship enquiry". Sponsorship and seat selection are decided separately and on different criteria.